Hey everyone. I have a 2022 IS350 on order and I’m looking for mods already. One of the first “mods” I always do is add a dash cam. I came across this one:
https://fitcamx.com/products/fitcamx-for-lexus-rx?variant=39781101240492
and I’m curious if anyone is currently using it or if they’ve used it? It seems to provide a very clean look and it could almost be perceived as OEM but I’m concerned about it plugging in to the same harness as the pre collision camera. Alternatively, I’m open to hearing about the other dash cameras that everyone is using. In my current car I’m using an Anker ROAV C1 and I was considering getting an Anker ROAV S1 until I ran into this Fitcamx. Thanks in advance.

 

I haven't used it, does it plug into the mirror? No running a power wire?

 

From what I’ve seen it plugs into the harness that powers the pre collision camera. It has a harness to be able to power both the dash cam and pre collision camera.

 

I dont know if thats good or bad but it sounds awesome not running a power wire. I wanted one for the IS 500 to spy on the dealership techs I had a joy riding incident in my C7, it sucked. I dont want a tech doing the same in the IS.

 

That’s exactly what my concern is haha. If it tapped into the mirror great, but the pre collision camera worries me

 

I wanted a dash cam in my old RX, but I returned it after I understood that if you want the parking monitor to work (camera taking a minute video when sensing the car was touched) you need to wire the camera to the fuse box. I didn't want to start removing the ceiling panels inside the car and doing damage or having wires sticking around the windshield. I mean, if you drive a Lexus let it feel like a Lexus and not like some delivery truck. So I just had a dash cam installed in my new RX 2022 by the dealer. Amazing job. No wires visible, professional installation and the camera is so small near the mirror, you have to look for it to see it. Works great. Records everything with sound or without (your choice). It's coming with an 8GB microHDHC card that records for about 3 hours. I also tried the SanDisk UHS-I 16GB and 32GB and they both work, so you can have up to 12 hours of recording before it starts overwriting it.
The drawbacks:
- downloading videos to your phone through the Wi-Fi takes ages, so I am just removing the card and plugging it into my PC where I'm using the Dash Cam Viewer from Lexus that works very well and it's fast. You can edit, store, etc.
- camera has no connection whatsoever to the car:
1. the speed showing on screen is from the camera GPS, so when you stop at a stop sign the GPS has no time to go to zero and it's looking like you didn't stop. You really need to stop and do 1, 2, 3 for it go down and show zero speed. No chance of fighting a stop sign ticket with it.
2. when you open the door or the trunk camera starts working because its parking monitor is being activated.
3. it would have been nice if you could monitor and control the camera from the car display.

Bottom line: I'm glad I installed it, but there is place for improvement.

 

thanks for the thorough comment. Can you provide us with the make and model of your dash cam? Thanks!

 

Lexus Dash Camera

 

Oh are you in Canada?

 

I have the fitcam on my 2021 ES. If it's made for your specific car go for it. No ill effect on any of the front sensor array of my ES. It just basically is a power extension cable. car doesn't know different.

 

Thank you very much for the feedback! That’s great to hear. By any chance, does the camera announce that it’s recording? My current camera has a display (which I turned off) but it also makes a beep when it turns on. I’d hate to think that the camera is on and recording only to find out later that it indeed wasn’t. Thank you for your help.

 

No announcement. The way you know it's recording is a flashing blue LED light. I colored mine in with a sharpie because it's noticeably flashing at night.

 

Just figured I'd come back and update everyone. I got the Fitcamx for a 2022 Lexus IS and truthfully it couldn't be any better. The installation was really simple and took probably 5-10 minutes. One thing to note, on other models you have to reinstall the factory top cover portion, but for some reason on the IS they include specific to the new housing. The housing in general is probably 1cm longer than the oem one, so it sticks out ever so slightly from the black marking on the windshield. Definitely not enough to be noticeable or an issue. The video quality is pretty good, though I will say I am skeptical of the whole 4k functionality, and that appears to have been disproved in other threads. Audio recording needs to be turned on in the app, but its definitely not top tier audio. Personally I don't mind it since my focus isn't to record audio, but rather video. Despite the 4k concern, I'd say the quality of the camera is great and it is also great in the night time. The only issue I experienced with it was with downloading videos on the app, but one suggestion I found on reddit, and later in the user manual as well, was to disable cellular data on your phone or go into airplane mode, and then connect to the camera. After doing that, downloading videos no longer failed.

 

@TipsyTonio can you provide some photos of your new dash-camera installed? I take it you went with the Front: 4K (2160P) 64GB?

 

Did you get the rear camera as well? I see that they have that option now too.